This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: NYT
Aug 5, 2009
Recalling the "people power" outpourings she inspired two decades ago, more than 100,000 people thronged the streets of Manila as the body of former President Corazon C. Aquino was driven slowly through swirling winds and rain for burial on Wednesday.
For five days after Mrs. Aquino, 76, died of cancer early Saturday, crowds of mourners converged on her coffin as it passed through the streets and lay in state at Manila Cathedral.
Source: NYT
Aug 5, 2009
The last two men imprisoned for Provisional I.R.A. offenses were released from prison on Wednesday, closing another chapter in peacemaking yet rekindling memories of a killing that infuriated much of Ireland.
The two men, Pearse McCauley and Kevin Walsh, walked free from Ireland's Castlerea prison more than 10 years after they were convicted in the killing by the Irish Republican Army of an Irish policeman guarding a cash delivery van.
Mr. McCauley and Mr. Walsh were th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
A fossil of a pterodactyl, the earliest known flying vertebrate, shows the creatures had unique and complex wing fibers that enabled them to fly with the precision and control of birds, researchers said on Wednesday.
The finding by a team of Brazilian, German, Chinese and British researchers in China backs up the theory that the reptiles that dominated the skies from up to 220 million years ago, were not just basic gliders.
A new technique that involves shining ultra-v
Source: Wall Street Journal
Aug 5, 2009
Farm real-estate values fell for the first time in more than 20 years, according to government statistics released Tuesday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its annual report that the value of all land and buildings on U.S. farms averaged $2,100 an acre Jan. 1, down 3.2% from last year. The decline in farm real-estate values was the first since 1987, the agency said.
Farm real-estate values had been climbing steadily over the past decade, reaching record levels l
Source: Wall Street Journal
Aug 5, 2009
A year after Russia fought a war with its former-Soviet neighbor Georgia, the argument over who was to blame for a conflict that at one point threatened to reignite the Cold War is raging again.
The five-day conflict left hundreds dead, Georgia's army crushed and two parts of its territory on the border with Russia -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- under Russian occupation. It also left the West struggling with how to respond to Russia's determination to assert a sphere of influence.
Source: AP
Aug 5, 2009
If suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay end up being held in Kansas, it wouldn't be the first time foreign detainees were imprisoned in the Midwest.
Thousands of Germans and Italians spent the last days of World War II in confinement on the prairie, far from the deserts of North Africa and plains of Western Europe.
As the U.S. weighs what to do with 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, one poss
Source: Tallahassee.com
Aug 5, 2009
For the first time, Leon County Schools is growing closer to a districtwide plan that will ensure more African-American history is taught across multiple subjects throughout the school year.
It comes on the heels of a Tallahassee civic-rights group's relentless pursuit — which has included filed complaints, letters to Gov. Charlie Crist and a filed lawsuit to the state attorney general — for more to be taught.
Black history is being taught already in Leon County. But so
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan
Aug 5, 2009
The ministry of culture has decided to hand over 126 archeological sites, except Mohanjo Daro, to the government of Sindh by the end of August this year. In pursuance of the directive of the Prime Minister, the Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Moeen-ul-Islam Bokhari and the Secretary of Culture Department, Government of Sindh, Shamas Jafarani, met along with Director General, Archeology here.
With the mandate to ensure the smooth transfer of the sites to the Government of Sind
Source: BBC
Aug 5, 2009
The world of espionage lies at the heart of the mythology of the Cold War.
But while the tales of adventure, betrayal and mole hunts have proved a source of rich inspiration for thriller writers, did they actually make a difference to the outcome?
It is difficult to know the answer.
One reason it is hard to make a judgement is that much of the intelligence collected was military or tactical in nature, and would only have proven useful if the Cold War had g
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
An effort by one of Germany's leading Holocaust deniers to set up a neo-Nazi "youth camp" in a rural hotel has been scotched by a court decision to have the neo-Nazis thrown out.
The court in Lower Saxony cleared the way for the debt-ridden hotel's receiver to evict the neo-Nazis, who had been occupying the premises amid a tense standoff with police and local anti-Nazi protesters.
Hours before the decision, German commandos had raided the hotel after hearing
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
Russia has revived a Cold War military tradition by deploying nuclear-powered submarines close to the US coastline.
Two Akula class submarines have been patrolling 200 miles off the US east coast but remained just inside international waters, the Pentagon said.
The mission, the first of its kind for at least 15 years, recalled many underwater confrontations of the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly stationed submarines off each other's coast
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
Italy is planning to build a 200ft high, solar energy-producing statue of one of its most cherished saints.
The statue of Padre Pio, who was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II and has a huge worldwide following, will be built on a hill in southern Italy, close to the town where he is commemorated.
It will cost several million pounds, with the money to be raised from his followers around the world.
The statue will be coated in a special photovoltaic pai
Source: AP
Aug 5, 2009
Officials say Hamburg harbor was closed for several hours after workers doing dredging work unearthed a World War II bomb from the bed of the Elbe river.
Fire department officials say the 500-pound British bomb was found during work Wednesday morning.
World War II-era bombs are still found regularly in Germany, even more than 60 years after the end of the war.
Source: Times (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
A Ministry of Defence press officer has claimed that being forced to tell lies about the war in Iraq has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.
John Salisbury-Baker, 62, who spoke for the Armed Forces in the North East, said that he had struggled to cope with a stress-related condition for the past two years. He is based at the Imphal Barracks in York.
He is pursuing a claim for disability discrimination on the grounds that the stress of the job has effectively l
Source: Times (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
Lockerbie victim families expressed anger today after the Scottish Justice Secretary made an unprecedented visit to the bomber in prison as speculation grew that he could be returned to Libya.
Kenny MacAskill met with Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, at Greenock Prison, as part of ongoing deliberations about his future. It is thought to be the first time a senior Holyrood minister has visited a convicted killer in jail.
In May, Libyan authorities applied for al-Megrah
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
The court in Lower Saxony cleared the way for the debt-ridden hotel's receiver to evict the neo-Nazis, who had been occupying the premises amid a tense standoff with police and local anti-Nazi protesters.
Hours before the decision, German commandos had raided the hotel after hearing what they thought to be gunshots.
They found several fake firearms, a concealable truncheon and pepper spray. Twelve neo-Nazis were on the premises, four of whom were minors and were handed
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 5, 2009
They included rescue and recovery workers, neighbouring office staff and passers-by.
A follow-up study of more than 46,000 people caught up in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, found one in 10 had been diagnosed with asthma five or six years after the disaster. None of these 4,600 individuals had a previous history of the disease.
There was a strong association between exposure to the choking dust cloud generated by the collapse of the towers and asthma, the
Source: BBC
Aug 5, 2009
Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov were acquitted in February of involvement in Ms Politkovskaya's death.
But critics said the trial was farcical and Russia's Supreme Court ordered a retrial over procedural violations.
Ms Politkovskaya was a staunch critic of the Kremlin - her supporters allege official involvement in her death.
The Kremlin has dismissed such claims.
Source: Iraqcrisis/Nakhla News
Aug 4, 2009
(Translation from Nakhla News)
Today under the auspiciousness of the Iraqi Ministerial Cabinet, agreement was signed between the German Federal Republic and the Government of the Republic of Iraq to co-operate in the fields of archaeological research, the conservation of human heritage, which was initiated announcing the protection of antiquities and heritage. Present at the ceremony were, Mr. Ali Muhsin Al-”Allaq Director of the Cabinet Office, Mr Mahir al-Hadithi Minister of Cultu
Source: MTI Daily Bulletin
Aug 4, 2009
Archaeologists of Debrecen's Deri Museum have discovered 4,000-year-old remains of a settlement during earth works connected to a local sewage treatment project, leader of the excavations Krisztian Szilagyi told MTI on Tuesday.
A team of 35-40 archaeologists are working in an area of two hectares, and have now identified the traces of three phases of the settlement: one in the early Bronze Age between 2700-2500 BC, the Sarmatian period around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD as well as
